Here are Florida’s Top 5 Christmas movies

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Maybe Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie in Florida.

That’s according to its notable absence from a list of Floridians’ Top 5 favorite Christmas movies compiled by gambling website CSGOLuck, which used Google Keyword Planner to analyze the number of searches for more than 180 Christmas movies to determine which were Sunshine State favorites. 

The title of each movie was combined with terms such as “buy,” “bluray,” “Netflix” and “watch online” to quantify favorites.

Topping the list is the 1946 classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. It follows George Bailey, a businessman played by Stewart who is contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve because, thanks to a series of unfortunate financial events, he thinks the world would be better off without him.

But like all feel-good movies, the plot takes a turn when he is shown the positive impact he’s had on his community, through the eyes of a guardian angel who demonstrates what life would have looked like without him. 

The classic film, which many argue is more of a pro-capitalism movie than a Christmas movie, had more than 11,000 monthly Google searches, according to CSGOLuck’s analysis. 

Coming up in the No. 2 spot is The Holiday, a 2006 romantic comedy starring Jack Black, Cameron Diaz, Jude Law and Kate Winslet. The two female leads are unlucky in love and swap houses for the holidays to escape their troubled love lives. It had more than 9,414 monthly Google searches, the analysis found. 

Will Ferrell’s iconic 2003 film Elf landed in third place, with nearly 7,200 monthly searches on average. In the movie, Ferrell plays a human, Buddy, who was raised as an Elf working in Santa’s workshop. But he eventually departs the North Pole to unite with his biological father, resulting in a hilarious ensemble of a man who is still a boy at heart and puts maple syrup on everything. 

On the other end of the wholesome spectrum is Bad Santa, a film released the same year with a notably different tone. The film, which stars Billy Bob Thornton as the troubled “bad Santa,” follows the man through his life as an alcoholic and a thief. It had more than 6,600 monthly Google searches, on average. 

Rounding out the Top 5 is the 2019 iteration of Little Women, with nearly 6,000 average monthly searches. The acclaimed period drama is a coming-of-age story of four sisters navigating life in 1860s young America, and is set between two Christmases.

It’s a Wonderful Life seems to transcend geography with universal Christmas spirit appeal. It landed in the top spot in most states, with only California favoring a different film, The Holiday. Even there though, It’s a Wonderful Life picked up the No. 2 spot.

The Top 5 films nationwide mirrored Florida’s preferences.